I went to a fundraising dinner tonight that advertised itself as having a meat and vegan option. Except when I got there, I was told the chef "didn't think anybody would want the vegan option." I got to eat just salad and bread, which were good for a fundraiser dinner but not what I signed up for. Yes, I'm ok eating just bread and salad at somebody's home when I'm invited for supper but not for a meal that I paid for and was promised an entree I could eat. However, I felt worse for the woman down the table from me who was an actual vegan and couldn't eat the salad that was pre-dressed with creamy dressing and covered with cheese and pre-buttered bread. When she asked about plain salad and bread, she was told that they were too busy to deal with that.

Yes, the goal of finding indoor homes for every cat is a noble one, but the fact remains that some cats are feral/semi-feral and are unadoptable under normal circumstances. The fact also remains that cats are very good hunters. So, if a person who lives out in the country wants to adopt a feral/semi-feral cat to serve as a barn cat, this would provide an otherwise unadoptable cat a home. Even if it's an outdoor home, these cats would still be fed regularly and given regular vet care. This is a much better life than on the streets, and definitely better than putting them down. At least that's how I think.

But NO! I'm EVIL. At least that's the attitude I've gotten from the rescue groups around here.

*sigh*

I have rats in the attic. My current cats are nearing 10 years old, which is quite old for barn cats. They can no longer hunt like they used to. We need to let them "retire", and live out their days sleeping in trees and sunning themselves on the pool deck and let some younger cats come in and do the work. My family does take care of our animals, even if they're working animals. Grrrr.

Do you have a trap-neuter-release program in your area? Or a low-income spay/neuter program? One of those should be able to help you out with finding feral cats.

We have a similar problem. Our org has a TNR program, but there are a few people in our (foster-only) group who will let any old feral cat into their home--which is noble, but if it started out feral, it can probably stay feral, and not take up space for an owner-surrendered cat or an impound cat that's been indoors its whole life. We are now flush with kittens because people wanted to bring the teensie babies into their homes instead of raising them in the barn or garage, and will soon be stuck with 3-4 full sized house cats that they won't have room for and someone else will need to foster.

There are several, and I talked to most of them and left messages with the rest. I did get through to one person in the county shelter who was hopeful that I might be able to take a few cats that would normally get put down. We're going to go to the shelter tomorrow to talk to the manager. The county normally puts down the ferals, since there's just too many house cats and they'd rather use the shelter space for cats that can be adopted into regular homes. There's only a small "country" area in the county, so the need for barn cats is small, and the county doesn't normally get such requests. I'm actually kind of surprised that it was the county shelter who was willing to work with me, and not the smaller rescue groups.

That's insane! The rescue programs in my community actively re-homes feral and semi-feral cats to secure yards to keep the rodent population down!

Someone at the corporate office has clearly never been to Florida in September. Because our store was running on heat instead of AC today. We were all hot, thirsty and miserable

I have actually called corporate offices to complain while I was at the store as a customer. Employees don't usually get anywhere. It takes a customer telling them they barfed in their store due to the overwhelming heat to get anyone to listen. I actually had a guy go on the web to look up the temp one Labor Day and another time near Christmas. Corporate had the heat on probably 85 F and it was in the 90s F on Labor Day and in the high 70s/low 80s F near Christmas. I get that where ever they are located is cold enough for heat to be on, but in this part of Florida, your lucky if you have to turn it on a total of a whole week from October to February.

Logged

Meditate. Live purely. Quiet the mind. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. ---Gautama Buddah

I went to a fundraising dinner tonight that advertised itself as having a meat and vegan option. Except when I got there, I was told the chef "didn't think anybody would want the vegan option." I got to eat just salad and bread, which were good for a fundraiser dinner but not what I signed up for. Yes, I'm ok eating just bread and salad at somebody's home when I'm invited for supper but not for a meal that I paid for and was promised an entree I could eat. However, I felt worse for the woman down the table from me who was an actual vegan and couldn't eat the salad that was pre-dressed with creamy dressing and covered with cheese and pre-buttered bread. When she asked about plain salad and bread, she was told that they were too busy to deal with that.

I know what organization to not support in the future.

Wow, no kidding! I wouldn't be supporting them either if that's how they are.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

Someone at the corporate office has clearly never been to Florida in September. Because our store was running on heat instead of AC today. We were all hot, thirsty and miserable

This is one thing that not only drives me mad, but defies all logic.Honestly. In a country like the US, which is so geographically and meteorologically diverse, what the hell is the point of having climate controls at any place other than the site experiencing the climate?I've never heard of a company trying to do something like that in Australia, because they'd probably face company-wide strikes if they did it in Melbourne alone - it can actually vary up to 10 degrees Celsius (about, what, 20-30f?) from suburb to suburb thanks to the topography of the city and the fact that it's at the bottom of a mountain range as well as spread out along the coast of a bay.

Someone at the corporate office has clearly never been to Florida in September. Because our store was running on heat instead of AC today. We were all hot, thirsty and miserable

This is one thing that not only drives me mad, but defies all logic.Honestly. In a country like the US, which is so geographically and meteorologically diverse, what the hell is the point of having climate controls at any place other than the site experiencing the climate?I've never heard of a company trying to do something like that in Australia, because they'd probably face company-wide strikes if they did it in Melbourne alone - it can actually vary up to 10 degrees Celsius (about, what, 20-30f?) from suburb to suburb thanks to the topography of the city and the fact that it's at the bottom of a mountain range as well as spread out along the coast of a bay.

There is no yearly consistency anywhere, really. We are in northern Illinois where it was 83 degrees yesterday. I've also seen snow here on Oct.7 where our average first day of frost is Oct. 10.

The temperature at my old office used to drive me up the wall, because it would be very cold in my area sometimes (not just in winter, but in what was reasonably air conditioning season), or horribly hot in other areas. But infuriating as that was, we knew nobody was trying to freeze or roast us: they were trying to control the temperature for a mostly open-plan office with an HVAC system that had been retrofitted into a building from 1915. (I did occasionally suspect that the system was optimized to keep the office manager's space comfortable: but she was in the general area as the rest of us, not another state.)

It helped when I noticed that one of the local street vendors was selling fingerless knit gloves for something like $4/pair; I decided I didn't care if anyone thought it looked odd, I could type in them better than in any normal gloves, or with bare hands when it was that cold.

Logged

Any advice that requires the use of a time machine may safely be ignored.

I got some inkling today of how parents feel when their kids announce something to a group of people which gives a totally different impression to the truth. Today, at lunch DH announced to the table that we had to get new carpets because of the cats. This is in no way even close to the truth. Yes, the cats claw the carpets but he made it sound like we're walking around on carpets with huge holes in them. What's actually the truth is that the carpets have been down since before we moved in, the carpeting was done on the cheap (joins in strange places) and I decided that we had the money we may as well just get the carpets done as they were the last big thing to do in the house. This, coupled with his reply of "I don't know" said in a tone that there's no way he should know the answer to a perfectly reasonable question ("Oh how long ago was it that I took that job?") is driving me up the wall.

My parents and I were eating in a small, very old restaurant. The table next to us had a grandma, two parents, misc relatives and one kid in a full Superman costume. I'm not sure if the kid was a 5 / 6 year with behavioral problems or just a very tall, wild 4 year old.

His grandma was seated right behind Dad and I. I noticed out of the corner of my eye someone at our elbows. This boy tells us "Hiiii" and starts chattering away. We ignored him. He started dancing, singing, doing a full show routine with his hands thrown out, punctuated with "deet deet whoo deet deet whoo." I thought at some point an adult would intervene. Nope! He kept coming back to our table. Mom's side of the table was angled into a corner. He actually scooted behind me, past Mom's chair and put himself into that corner for more antics. I said pointedly "Oh please don't step on my purse!" His parents said three different times during lunch "Danny, come on" and his grandma said "Danny, don't" + "Danny, I want to talk to you about something." How about "Danny, you WILL sit down, period, end of story" instead ? I was concerned the kid would grab our food, too

I got some inkling today of how parents feel when their kids announce something to a group of people which gives a totally different impression to the truth. Today, at lunch DH announced to the table that we had to get new carpets because of the cats. This is in no way even close to the truth. Yes, the cats claw the carpets but he made it sound like we're walking around on carpets with huge holes in them. What's actually the truth is that the carpets have been down since before we moved in, the carpeting was done on the cheap (joins in strange places) and I decided that we had the money we may as well just get the carpets done as they were the last big thing to do in the house. This, coupled with his reply of "I don't know" said in a tone that there's no way he should know the answer to a perfectly reasonable question ("Oh how long ago was it that I took that job?") is driving me up the wall.

I can understand the carpet situation. Ours was wearing thin when we moved in and is just one of those things on the long list of projects we need to tackle. There's one spot where it is getting bare and spreading because the vacuum keeps pulling up the frayed ends and then the cats paw at it.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

When really nice places have bathrooms more disgusting than a gas station. I treated a friend to lunch at a nice restaurant and when I went to use the restroom, I found no soap in the dispenser, the floor was utter filth, the sinks looked grimy and not a single stall had toilet paper, so people were using the seat covers and throwing those on the floor in the stalls! I was so shocked I didn't dare set my purse down to freshen up my makeup because I did not trust the counter top under the mirror to not be covered in a thin film of bacteria and other grossness.

We went to the good old Waffle House for lunch yesterday after church. Food was good, as usual (can't beat eggs and their hash browns - yum!). However, one of the off duty employees was there with her (under five) child, while she was in the back area looking at what appeared to be school photos from another coworker (the area was visible from where we sat, and I couldn't help but see what was going on). The presence of the child wasn't the issue - the fact that he was running around with a dripping ice cream cone, opening doors with his sticky hands, running back and forth across the main aisle at top speed, and nearly knocking over DP's walker onto his head a dozen times (it was leaning on the wall across from our booth, the only place we could 'park' it) was the issue. A word to the waitress got a shrug, and her tip was adjusted appropriately (she didn't even try to apologize, or say she'd speak to the manager or the parent, or even seem surprised).

Yes, the goal of finding indoor homes for every cat is a noble one, but the fact remains that some cats are feral/semi-feral and are unadoptable under normal circumstances. The fact also remains that cats are very good hunters. So, if a person who lives out in the country wants to adopt a feral/semi-feral cat to serve as a barn cat, this would provide an otherwise unadoptable cat a home. Even if it's an outdoor home, these cats would still be fed regularly and given regular vet care. This is a much better life than on the streets, and definitely better than putting them down. At least that's how I think.

But NO! I'm EVIL. At least that's the attitude I've gotten from the rescue groups around here.

*sigh*

I have rats in the attic. My current cats are nearing 10 years old, which is quite old for barn cats. They can no longer hunt like they used to. We need to let them "retire", and live out their days sleeping in trees and sunning themselves on the pool deck and let some younger cats come in and do the work. My family does take care of our animals, even if they're working animals. Grrrr.

The rescue group we foster for has a barn-cat program. Some of our less socialized cats have gone to a riding stable.

Logged

It is the policy of the United States Navy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard its vessels.

Yes, the goal of finding indoor homes for every cat is a noble one, but the fact remains that some cats are feral/semi-feral and are unadoptable under normal circumstances. The fact also remains that cats are very good hunters. So, if a person who lives out in the country wants to adopt a feral/semi-feral cat to serve as a barn cat, this would provide an otherwise unadoptable cat a home. Even if it's an outdoor home, these cats would still be fed regularly and given regular vet care. This is a much better life than on the streets, and definitely better than putting them down. At least that's how I think.

But NO! I'm EVIL. At least that's the attitude I've gotten from the rescue groups around here.

*sigh*

I have rats in the attic. My current cats are nearing 10 years old, which is quite old for barn cats. They can no longer hunt like they used to. We need to let them "retire", and live out their days sleeping in trees and sunning themselves on the pool deck and let some younger cats come in and do the work. My family does take care of our animals, even if they're working animals. Grrrr.

The rescue group we foster for has a barn-cat program. Some of our less socialized cats have gone to a riding stable.

I guess since the area of my county where barn cats would be required is so small, the rescue groups don't think about it. There's quite a number of TNR programs for the feral colonies, but the attitude seems to be that purposely creating a colony, even using already feral/semi-feral cats is a Bad Thing. The county shelter only had a couple of elderly ferals when I went down. The employee I was working with will call me when she gets cats in the age range I'm looking for (1-2 years old). I'm figuring that will only be a day or two. They're bending some rules for me, which is good thing for me and the cats. The normal procedure for undadoptale cats is, well, it's a county shelter...*sigh*.

Logged

Some people lift weights. I lift measures. It's a far more esoteric workout. - (Quoted from a personal friend)

^Can you go out of county? I know our adoption of Mocha was from a bi-county SPCA.

I have a coworker that is a little off the beaten path. In the 6+ years I have worked with her, she has proven to be different from most people in my profession by many ways. As she has gotten older, she is getting more eccentric.

Last week, she kept wandering from office to office venting about the (partially government bailed out) manufacturer of two of the vehicles the department owns and how horrible it is that we bought these cars. Oh, they are just falling apart. And on forever.

Today, it is how all social media and email is being monitored by the federal government. Wandering from office to office to share this news.